After Hamilton was quickest in the opening practice session in Austin, he remained on top in the afternoon but Rosberg closed the gap on soft tyres to leave the pair over a second clear of the rest of the field. However, Hamilton's long run was ended prematurely as he had to pit after 18 laps and sit out the rest of the session with a hydraulic problem.

With Hamilton fastest on a 1:39.085, the two Mercedes cars were the only two able to dip below the 1m40s mark. Fernando Alonso was third fastest for Ferrari on a 1:40.189, over 1.1s off Hamilton's pace. Daniel Ricciardo was fourth quickest as he made a solid recovery having missed the majority of FP1 due to an ERS issue.

While Ricciardo had smooth running, team-mate Sebastian Vettel was the one to struggle in FP2 as he completed 19 laps and was comfortably slowest. Vettel's best time was 4.8s slower than Hamilton and 2.5s off Esteban Gutierrez in 17th place. However, most of his focus will be on race set-up with Vettel set to sit out qualifying having been hit with a pit lane start for using a sixth complete power unit.

Massa had a spin at the first corner early on in the session, while Romain Grosjean later went off with a high-speed spin at Turn 4 after 30 mins. It was the second time a Lotus had lost control at high speed, with Pastor Maldonado following his off in FP1 with another at Turn 19.

The session ended with a 'virtual safety car' test, with the speed of the cars limited in order to simulate a way of slowing cars through double-waved yellow flag sectors.